I had a perfectly running openSUSE 11.4 64-bit system and I tried to add a secondary drive to the Boot Loader so that I can boot from a windows drive from Grub. After reboot I get the error message “Error Loading Operating System”. Is there a way to repair Grub so that it will revert back to previous configuration? I’m not too worried about data loss, I have a backup on a external drive! Its just I don’t want to go through the whole process of reinstalling and reconfiguring my system. So if I can get Grub fixed I will be very happy.
Let us assume you did install WIndows on the right drive!
What did you do before rebooting?
Which drive has boot priority is the BIOS?
What happens if you, disable/disconnect your Windows drive and power on the computer without it?
It might also be useful to say when you see “Error Loading Operating System”, booting windows, opensuse or both
Also a bit more info on how you went about setting the whole thing up might be helpful, was the windows drive previously the boot drive in the computer and even was the windows installed onto the drive using the system you’re trying to run it on and was that system in the same state as it was when installed (no hardware changes/upgrades for example)
You say you ‘tried to add a secondary drive to the Boot Loader so that I can boot from a windows drive from Grub’ but you don’t give any info into how you went about this which is why please_try_again asked you the questions that he has, the usual way to set up a dual boot windows and linux system is to first install the windows then install the linux and the grub setup script usually detects windows partitions/installations then adds them to the boot menu
Doesn’t sound like you did that though, sounds more like when you installed your opensuse your windows drive wasn’t available to the system so it didn’t get detected. Did you unplug your windows drive to protect it while you installed OpenSuse in case something went wrong?
When asking questions on here mate it’s always a good idea to include as much information as possible, makes it easier for people to help you
I’m guessing a knowledgeable person can help you fix this by editing grub’s boot menu file, and a live cd would be a useful tool for doing it so if you don’t already have one it may be a good idea to download one
On 07/08/2011 01:06 AM, henkasdf wrote:
> I had a perfectly running openSUSE 11.4 64-bit system and I tried to
> add a secondary drive to the Boot Loader so that I can boot from a
> windows drive from Grub.
i’m trying to refrain from saying i told you that it is not “not a
problem at all”…
That’s for sure … although it wasn’t necessary. And again it should not have been a problem. Beeing impatient is a problem while installing an operating system, whether Linux, Windows … or OS/400 …lol! Anyway, for the impatients, installing Windows first and then Linux is a lot easier.
As long as you have a live CD, a basic knowledge of GRUB’s menu.lst and the steps to re-install GRUB to MBR (optional) you can recover your boot loader irrespective of the order you install the operating systems.
And it is always better to install GRUB to both the MBR as well as the root of your partition (why ? - you can chainload a partition’s boot record from any other boot loader - grub legacy, grub 2, grub4dos, NT boot lodaer, Vista/7 BOOTMGR or any other decent boot loader.